After an underwhelming Mexican meal downtown, there was no chance we were sticking around for dessert. Thankfully, my father remembered a 38-word promotional ad in Texas Monthly, describing spectacular cakes and pies. We tracked down a copy at the hotel and sped to north Austin to beat Blue Star Cafeteria’s 10 p.m. closing time.

Turns out Blue Star was no “cafeteria.” It was a trendy mid-range restaurant with sharp design elements like this logo. I was expecting a cafeteria line; instead, we received table service.

Owner Eddie Bernal buys his pies and cakes from Scott Calvert of The Cake Plate. To achieve “Sugar Intoxication” – Blue Star’s term for dessert – my father, brother and I split three pies ($6.30 each), each plucked from a well-stocked display case.

Toll House pie burst with chocolate chips and walnuts and was plated with chocolate sauce.

An excellent slice of apple pie arrived warm and open-faced, without a crust on top. The plate featured a squiggle of caramel sauce.

Coconut chess pie contained a layer of lemon on bottom, and a layer of macaroon-like coconut on top. Like with the apple pie, this plate was decorated with caramel sauce.

We also got a big scoop of “house made” vanilla ice cream. As it turns out, the vanilla ice cream was made in another house, downtown at Amy’s Ice Cream. Still, good ice cream is good ice cream, so we didn’t complain.

During the short wait for our pies, we read the Blue Star menu. There were items like maple chicken fried quail with Boursin grits, coconut and cornflake chicken tenderloins with mango chutney dipping sauce, and the Blue Burger with blue cheese crumbles and apple wood-smoked bacon. Given options that tempting, our next free Saturday in Austin, I could easily see skipping another mediocre Mexican meal and getting the full Blue Star experience.